George’s awesome week of awesome III

Friday’s cookery practical class is all about pastry. No, not four hours of making pastry, but four hours of Pastry chef-ing that’s desserts to most folk or as I like to call it the demon class that will make me even fatter

Still my newly acquired knife skills were given a workout as we went though some training on chopping fruit and we also made some absolutely fantastic scones, of course there was more to it than simply the practical aspect. We also covered knife skills, general handling procedures, the uniform and why it is what it is and also hygiene practices, amongst a host of other things that I won’t bore you with.

All in all it’s been one of the busiest, most exciting, scary, thrilling and rewarding weeks of my professional life while simultaneously making me feel like a teenager and an old fogey all at the same time. It means I now have commitments to a path that I’m hoping will lead me into Culinary Arts in 2011 year as well as other commitments outside of college and I can see a very full and busy schedule ahead of me for the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately, I don’t see how I can fit everything I have to do into the time that is available. So something has to give. No this is not the bit where I say I’m giving up on this blog, but it is the bit where I say that I may not be posting as regularly in future due to other commitments.

Elly has already said that she intends to post more and I can see there being some crossover between what I’m studying and this blog so hopefully I will be able to adapt some of my college work where suitable to the blog format.

But enough of that, I feel the need to take a little time out here to thank a few people for helping me get this far. So, in no particular order…

Thank you to Kieran and Thea from Murphy’s Ice-cream. Thanks for not giving me a job (it truly was the best thing you could have done for me ;)) and reminding me of what confidence and a bit of neck can do for you when you really want something.

Thank you Ciaran in Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud for giving me a try in a kitchen I had no place being in (with my lack of skills) and giving me the chance to see what life in a fine dining kitchen is all about.

A huge thanks to John in CPLN Area Local Employment Service for being the only person I encountered in “the system” who seemed genuinely to care about the people he worked with, doing everything he could to reduce the live register by one, being so hell bent on getting me started in a new career and for helping me find and investigate all the options that were open to me. Our country needs more people like him.

My family and friends, you have all given so much of yourselves to help me over the last year I just don’t know where to begin in thanking you all, just know that I love and appreciate all of you for it and I will be looking for ways that I can return the favour.

And finally I want to thank Elly, my wife, my lover, my best friend, my reason to get up in the morning and my reason to go to bed at night, without your help and support I would never have had the belief in myself to even attempt this and I know that with you, I’m a better person than I ever could be without.

Wow, that sounds like the sycophantic ramblings of some overrated starlet receiving an Oscar but you know I’ve won a bigger prize than an Oscar… Opportunity, it doesn’t come knocking too often and when it does, it take hard work and determination to maximise it. A lot of people have helped me to get to where I am right now and I will do everything in my power to honour their efforts by giving this my all.

Hi all and thanks, sorry I haven’t been replying, been flat out catching up on college after the weeks holiday.

A hliday might not have been the best of ideas in the first week of college but then it was organised first and it was a foodie excursion to Italy, so it kinda complements the cookery and tourism aspects of the course *ahem* honest 😀